↑World Factbook (Online ed.). Langley, Virginia: US Central Intelligence Agency. 2015. ISSN1553-8133. Standin: 2 August 2015. A rough estimate in this edition has populations of 14.3 million in Turkey, 8.2 million in Iran, about 5.6 to 7.4 million in Iraq, and less than 2 million in Syria, which adds up to approximately 28–30 million Kurds in Kurdistan or adjacient regions. CIA estimates are wekî ku ji gelawêj 2015[update] – Turkey: Kurdish 18%, of 81.6 million; Iran: Kurd 10%, of 81.82 million; Iraq: Kurdish 15%-20%, of 37.01 million, Syria: Kurds, Armenians, and other 9.7%, of 17.01 million.

↑Volume 2. Dabbagh – Kuwait University. — Iran, page 1111–1112. // Encyclopedia of Modern Middle East & North Africa. Second Edition. Volume 1 — 4. Editor in Chief: Philip Mattar. Associate Editors: Charles E. Butterworth, Neil Caplan, Michael R. Fischbach, Eric Hooglund, Laurie King–Irani, John Ruedy. Farmington Hills: Gale, 2004, 2936 pages. ISBN 9780028657691 "With an estimated population of 67 million in 2004, Iran is one of the most populous countries in the Middle East. ... Iran’s second largest ethnolinguistic minority, the Kurds, make up an estimated 5 percent of the country’s population and reside in the provinces of Kerman and Kurdistan as well as in parts of West Azerbaijan and Ilam. Kurds in Iran are divided along religious lines as Sunni, Shi'ite, or Ahl-e Haqq."

↑Dabrowska, Karen; Hann, Geoff (2008). "Ethnic groups and languages". Iraq Then and Now: A Guide to the Country and Its People. Chalfont St Peter, UK: Bradt Travel Guides. pp. 12–13. ISBN9781841622439. The Iraqi people were once like a necklace, where the thread of nationality united a variety of unique and colourful beads. The Arabs are in the majority, making up at least 75% of the population, while 18% are Kurds and the remaining 7% consists of Assyrians, Turcomans, Armenians and other, smaller minoritiesEv çavkaniyên tersiyer vekaranîna agahiyên ku ji çavkaniyên din e, lê ji wan re ne nav e.

↑McDowall, David (2004). "Appendix 2. The Kurds of Syria". A Modern History of the Kurds (Third ed.). London: I.B. Tauris. p. 466. ISBN9781850434160. Kurds probably constitute between 8 and 10 percent of the population of modern Syria, probably 1.2 and 1.5 million out of total population of an estimated 15.3 million in 1998.

↑Karnamak Ardashir Papakan and the Matadakan i Hazar Dastan. G. Asatrian, Prolegomena to the Study of the Kurds, Iran and the Caucasus, Vol.13, pp. 1–58, 2009. Excerpt 1: ""Generally, the etymons and primary meanings of tribal names or ethnonyms, as well as place names, are often irrecoverable; Kurd is also an obscurity" "It is clear that kurt in all the contexts has a distinct social sense, “nomad, tent-dweller”. It could equally be an attribute for any Iranian ethnic group having similar characteristics. To look for a particular ethnic sense here would be a futile exercise." pg 24: "The Pahlavi materials clearly show that kurd in pre-Islamic Iran was a social label, still a long way off from becoming an ethnonym or a term denoting a distinct group of people."

↑Ludwig Paul "HISTORY OF THE KURDISH LANGUAGE", Encyclopedia Iranica (2008) writes about the problem of attaining a coherent definition of "Kurdish language" within the Northwestern Iranian dialect continuum. There is no unambiguous evolution of Kurdish from Middle Iranian, as "from Old and Middle Iranian times, no predecessors of the Kurdish language are yet known; the extant Kurdish texts may be traced back to no earlier than the 16th century CE." Ludwig further states: "Linguistics itself, or dialectology, does not provide any general or straightforward definition of at which point a language becomes a dialect (or vice versa). To attain a fuller understanding of the difficulties and questions that are raised by the issue of the “Kurdish language,” it is therefore necessary to consider also non-linguistic factors."